THE HIGH SCHOOL CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM
or Dick & Co. Leading the Athletic Vanguard
By H. Irving Hancock
CONTENTS
CHAPTERS
I. "Kicker" Drayne Revolts
II. A Hint from the Girls
III. Putting the Tag on the Sneak
IV. The Traitor Gets His Deserts
V. "Brass" for an Armor Plate
VI. One of the Fallen
VII. Dick Meets the Boy-With-A-Kick
VIII. Dick Puts "A Better Man" in His Place
IX. Could Dave Make Good?
X. Leading the Town to Athletics
XI. The "King Deed" of Daring
XII. The Nerve of the Soldier
XIII. Dick Begins to Feel Old
XIV. Fordham Plays the Gentleman's Game
XV. "We'll Play the Gentleman's Game
XVI. Gridley's Last Charge
XVII. The Long Gray Column
XVIII. The Would-Be Candidates
XIX. Tom Reade Bosses the Job
XX. When the Great News was Given Out
XXI. Gridley Seniors Whoop It Up
XXII. The Message From the Unknown
XXIII. The Plight of the Innocent
XXIV. Dave Gives Points to the Chief of Police
XXV. Conclusion
CHAPTER I
"Kicker" Drayne Revolts
"I'm going to play quarter-back," declared Drayne stolidly.
"You?" demanded Captain Dick Prescott, looking at the aspirant
in stolid wonder.
"Of course," retorted Drayne. "It's the one position I'm best
fitted for of all on the team."
"Do you mean that you're better fitted for that post than anyone
else on the team?" inquired Prescott. "Or that it's the position
that best fits your talents?"
"Both," replied Drayne.
Dick Prescott glanced out over Gridley High School's broad athletic
field.
A group of the middle men of the line, and their substitutes,
had gathered around Coach Morton.
On another part of the field Dave Darrin was handling a squad
of new football men, teaching how to rush in and tackle the swinging
lay figure.
Still others, under Greg Holmes, were practicing punt kicks.
Drayne's face was flushed, and, though he strove to hide the fact,
there was an anxious look there.
"I didn't quite understand, Drayne," continued the young captain
of the team, "that you were to take a very important part this
year."
"Pshaw! I'd like to know why I'm not," returned the other boy
hotly.
"I think that is regarded as being the general understanding,"
continued Dick. He didn't like this classmate, yet he hated to
give offense or to hurt the other's feelings in any way.
"The general understanding?" repeated Drayne hotly. "Then I can
tell the man who started that understanding."
"I think I can, too," Prescott answered, smiling patiently.
"It was you, Dick Prescott! You, the leader of Dick & Co., a
gang that tries to boss everything in the High School!
"Cool down a bit," advised young Prescott coolly. "You know well
enough that the little band of chums who have been nicknamed Dick
& Co. don't try to run things in the High School. You know, too,
Drayne, if you'll be honest about it, that my chums and I have
sometimes sacrificed our own wishes to what seemed to be the greatest
good of the school."
"Then who is the man who has worked to put me on the shelf in
football?" insisted the other boy, eyeing Dick menacingly.
"Yourself, Drayne!"
"What are you talking about?" cried Drayne, more angry than before.
"Don't be blind, Drayne," continued the young captain. "And don't
be silly enough to pretend that you don't know just what I mean.
You remember last Thanksgiving Day?"
"Oh, that?" said Drayne, contemptuously. "Just because I wouldn't
do just what you fellows wished me to do?
"I was there," pursued Captain Prescott, "and I heard all that
was said, saw all that was done. There was nothing unreasonable
asked of you. Some of the fellows were a good bit worried as
to whether you were really in shape for the game, and they talked
about it among themselves. They didn't intend you to over hear,
but you did, and you took offense. The next thing we knew, you
were hauling off your togs in hot temper, and telling us that
you wouldn't play. You did this in spite of the fact that we
were about to play the last and biggest game of the season."
"I should say I wouldn't play, under such circumstances! Nor
would you, Prescott, had the same thing happened to you."
"I have had worse things happen to me," replied Dick coolly.
"I have been hectored to pieces, at times, both on the baseball
and football teams. The hectoring has even gone so far that I
have had to fight, more than once. But never sulked in dressing
quarters and refused to go on the field."
"No!" taunted Drayne. "And a good reason why. You craved to
get out, always, and make grand stand plays!"
"I suppose I'm as fond of applause from the grand stand as any
other natural fellow," laughed Dick good-humoredly. "But I'll
tell you one thing, Drayne: I never hear a murmur of what comes
from the grand stand until the game is over. I play for the success
of the team to which I belong, and listening to applause would
take my mind off the plays. But, candidly, what the fellows have
against you, is that you're a quitter. You throw down your togs
at a critical moment, and tell us you won't play, just because
your fearfully sensitive feelings have been hurt. Now, a sportsman
doesn't do that."
"Oh, it's all right for you to take on that mighty superior air,
and try to lecture me," retorted Drayne gruffly.
"I'm not lecturing you. But the fellows chose me to lead the
team this year, and the captain is the spokesman of the team.
He also has to attend to its disagreeable business. Don't blame
me, Drayne, and don't blame anyone else-----"
"Captain Prescott!" sounded the low, but clean-cut, penetrating
voice of Mr. Morton, submaster and football coach of the Gridley
High School.
"Coming, sir!" answered Dick promptly.
Then he added, to Drayne:
"Just blame your own conduct for the decision that was reached
by coach and myself after listening to the instructions of the
alumni Athletics Committee."
Dick moved away at a loping run, for football practice was limited
to an hour and a half in an afternoon, and he knew there was
no time to be frittered.
"Oh, you sneak!" quivered Drayne, clenching his hands as he scowled
at the back of the captain. "It was you who brought up the old
dispute. It is you who are keeping me from any decent chance
this last year of mine in the High School. I won't stand it!
I'll shake the dust from my feet on this crowd. I won't remain
in the squad, just for a possible chance to sub in some small
game!"
His face still hot with what he considered righteous indignation,
Drayne felt better as soon as he had decided to shake the crowd.
In an instant, however, he changed his mind. A sly, exultant
look came into his eyes.
"On second thought I believe I won't quit," he grinned to himself.
"I'll stay---I'll drill---and I'll get good and square with this
cheap crowd, captained by a cheap man! Gridley hasn't lost a
game in years. Well, you chaps shall lose more than one game
this year! I'll teach you! I'll make this a year that shall
never be forgotten by humbled Gridley pride!"
Just what Phin Drayne was planning will doubtless be made plain
ere long.
Readers of the preceding volumes in this series are already familiar
with nearly all the people, young and old, of both sexes, whom
they are now to meet again. In the first volume, "_The High School
Freshmen_," our readers became acquainted with Dick Prescott,
Dave Darrin, Greg Holmes, Dan Dalzell, Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton,
six young chums who, back in their days in the Central Grammar
School Gridley, had become fast friends, and had become known
as Dick & Co.
These chums played together, planned together, entered all sports
together. They were inseparable. All were manly young fellows.
When they entered Gridley High School, and caught the fine High
School spirit prevailing there, they made the honor of the school
even more important than their own companionship.
In the first year at High School the boys, being mere freshmen, could
not expect to enter any of the school's athletic teams. Yet,
as our readers know, Dick and his friends found many a quiet way
to boost local interest and pride in High School athletics. Dick
& Co. also indulged in many merry and startlingly novel pranks.
Dick secured an amateur position as space reporter on "The Blade,"
the morning newspaper of the little city, and was assigned, among
other things, to look after the news end of the transactions of
the Board of Education. The "influence" that young Prescott secured
in that way doubtless saved him from having grave trouble, or
being expelled when, owing to Dr. Thornton's ill-health, Abner
Cantwell, a man with an uncontrollable temper, came temporarily
to the principal's chair. To everybody's great delight, at the
beginning of this their senior year, Dr. Thornton had returned
to his position fully restored to his former vigor and health.
In "_The High School Pitcher_" Dick & Co., then sophomores, were
shown in some fine work with the Gridley High School nine, and
Dick had serious, even dangerous, Trouble, with mean, treacherous
enemies that he made.
In "_The High School Left End_," Dick & Co., juniors, made their
real entrance into High School athletics by securing places in
the school football eleven. It was in this year that there occurred
the famous strife between the "soreheads" and their enemies, whom
the former termed the "muckers." The "soreheads" were the sons
of certain aristocratic families who resolved to secede from football
in case any of the members of Dick & Co. or of other poor Gridley
families, were allowed to make places on the team. As the group
of "soreheads" contained a few young men who were really absolutely
necessary to the success of the Gridley High School football eleven,
the strife threatened to put Gridley in the back row as far as
football went.
But Dick, with his characteristic vigor, went after the "soreheads"
in the columns of "The Blade." He covered them with ridicule
and scorn so that the citizens of the town began to take a hand
in the matter as soon as their public pride was aroused.
The "soreheads" were driven, then, to apply for places in the
football squad. Only those most needed, however, had been admitted,
and the rest had retired in sullen admission of defeat.
Two of the latter, Bayliss and Bert Dodge, carried matters so
far, however, that they were actually forced out of the High School
and left Gridley to go to a preparatory school elsewhere.
The hostile attempts of young Ripley, of Dodge, Drayne and others
to injure Dick & Co. have been fully related in the four volumes
of the "_High School Boys' Vacation Series_." This series deals
with the good times enjoyed by Dick & Co. during their first
three summers as high school boys. These stories are replete
with summer athletics, and a host of exciting adventures. The
four volumes of this Vacation Series are published under the titles:
"_The High School Boys' Canoe Club_," "_The High School Boys in
Summer Camp_," "_The High School Boys Fishing Trip_" and "_The
High School Boys' Training Hike_."
This present year no "sorehead" movement had been attempted.
Every student who honestly wanted to play football presented himself
at the school gymnasium, on the afternoon named by Coach Morton
for the call, including Drayne, who had been one of the original
"soreheads." Drayne afterwards returned to the football fold,
behaving with absurd childishness at the big Thanksgiving game,
as our readers will recall.
Leaving Coach Morton, Captain Prescott hurried away to take charge
of the practice.
"Come, Mr. Drayne!" called Coach Morton "Get into the tackling
work, and be sure to mix it up lively."
"Just a moment, coach, if you please," begged Drayne.
"Well, Drayne?" asked Mr. Morton
"Captain Prescott has just been telling me that I'm to be only
a sort of sub this year."
"Well, he's captain," replied the submaster.
"Huh! I thought it was all Prescott's fine work!" sneered Phin.
"You're wrong there, Mr. Drayne," rejoined the coach frankly.
"As a matter of fact, it was I who suggested that you be cast
for light work this year."
"Oh!" muttered Drayne
"Yes; if you feel like blaming anyone, blame me, not Prescott.
You know, Drayne, you didn't behave very well last Thanksgiving
Day."
"I admit that my behavior was unreasonable, sir. But you know,
Mr. Morton, that I'm one of the valuable men."
"There's a crowd of valuable men this year, Drayne," smiled the
submaster.
"On the strongest pledge that I can give you, Mr. Morton, will
you allow me to play regular quarter-back this season?" begged
the quitter of the year before.
"I would give the idea more thought if Prescott recommended it;
but I doubt if he would," answered Mr. Morton slowly. "Personally,
Drayne, I don't approve of putting you on strong this year. The
quitter's reputation Drayne, is one that can't ever be really
lived down, you know."
Though coach's manner was mild enough, there was look of the resolute
eyes of this famous college athlete that made Phin Drayne realized
how I hopeless it was to expect any consideration from him.
"All right then Mr. Morton," he replied huskily. "I'll do my
best on a small showing, and take what comes to me."
Yet, as he walked slowly over to join the tacklers around the
swinging figure, the hot blood came again to young Drayne's face.
"I'll make this year a year of sorrow Gridley!" he quivered indignantly.
"I'll hang on, and make believe I'm meek as a lamb, but I'll
spoil Gridley's record for this year! There was in olden times
a chap who had a famous knack for getting square with people who
used him the wrong way. I wish I could remember his name at this
moment."
Drayne couldn't recall the name at the time, but another name
that might have served Drayne to remember at this instant was---
Benedict Arnold.